Toy construction blocks have been popular for many years. The advent and advancement of injection molding plastics technology have resulted in the development of construction block sets such as LEGO (commercially available from the Lego Group), K'NEX (commercially available from K'NEX) and Clics (commercially available from Clics Toys). Each one of these sets has its own unique characteristics such as the geometrical shape of the blocks, the method of connection, the degree of structural stability etc. These unique characteristics introduce particular features of the blocks. For example, in the case of the basic LEGO block sets, two block elements can connect to each other in one direction only (one above the other), or in the case of the Clics blocks, two block elements can connect to each other side-by-side with a 0-90 degree rotation about their common edge. Generally, the block elements of these sets connect to each other without the need for a connecting pin to bring the two elements together. The connection is usually accomplished by incorporating inter-connecting male and female features into the design of each block. There are blocks however, which also use connecting elements.
There are other forms of construction blocks on the market, such as Kapla (commercially available from Kapla Toys), whose blocks are typically larger than those of LEGO etc. which provide the ability to create large structures. Since there is no connection ability between such blocks, the structures created are unstable.
Richard Onanian has created a block and peg combination which is described in the following patents: U.S. Pat. No. 3,205,611; U.S. Pat. No. 3,195,266; U.S. Pat. No. 3,545,122; U.S. Pat. No. 2,885,822 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,769,428.
Other block and peg toys are described in the following publications: US2006276100, DE202004009465U, WO10012050A, KR20100068945, US2009017716A, JP2008212230A, US2008075528A, WO07120071A, US2007130874A, US2008214087A, KR200257670, KR20100068945A, WO10012050A, US2009017716A, WO08078942A, US2008075528A, WO07120071A, WO07021090A, US2008214087A, WO04067128A, US2008207082A and KR200257670Y. They are also described in the patents: U.S. Pat. No. 6,736,691, U.S. Pat. No. 5,924,906A, U.S. Pat. No. 5,788,555A, GB 2108857A, U.S. Pat. No. 3,613,291A, EP 0911070A, BE 1010737A, U.S. Pat. No. 5,009,599A, FR 2382254A, GB1238975A, U.S. Pat. No. 3,585,752, U.S. Pat. No. 3,496,670, U.S. Pat. No. 3,611,609, P 0911070, BE 1010737, U.S. Pat. No. 5,009,599, FR 2382254, GB 1238975, U.S. Pat. No. 3,585,752, U.S. Pat. No. 3,496,670 and U.S. Pat. No. 1,472,536.